mermaid
by lusija
Summary: Crew of the Hammersley gets help of a marine biologist
1. Chapter 1

_This is my first story - be kind :) english isn't my mother tongue so please excuse mistakes. Hope you enjoy my story_

"Hey guys, need help?"

Startled the two sailors looked at the redhaird head that just popped out of the water in front of their boat.

"Buffer, is this...is this a mermaid?" the younger one asked. His voice sounded weak and hoarse. Slowly the other one shifted his body to the left, trying to get a better look at the girl that was swimming next to their small tender. Both seamen looked pretty shaken in their wet clothes with wet hair, sunburned skin and chapped lips. Eyes red from seawater contact looked at her with confusion.

"I'm not sure, mate, … are we dead? 'Cause then that must be an angel."

"Who are you two and how long are you out here, anyway?" The young woman didn't wait for an answer, clearly the men weren't able to think strait ahead any more. "I'm back in a minute," she said and soundlessly she disappeared in the waves.

Shortly after, she was back with a small bottle and howled herself over the starboard railing. Both men looked at her with astonishment. The woman had a small slender but feminine figure, red hair and was wearing a short wet suit. "Everything at the right place," Buffer thought to himself, "but no fishtail, so no mermaid," he concluded. The Redhead kneeled down and helped first the older one then the younger with the bottle. "Easy boys, not too much at a time. You look pretty dehydrated. You're navy, aren't you? I managed to contact a vessel in near proximity, it will be here in about twenty minutes. Robert seemed to be really glad to hear from you, you know."

"Which ship did you talk to? How did you know..." The sentence trailed of as Spider tried to concentrate on the horizon. You could already imagine a small figure coming closer. It was the HMAS Hammersley on their way to help them. Finally, they were getting rescued.

The unknown woman helped Buffer sit up and then turned 'round at Spider again.

"I didn't introduce myself, I'm sorry. My name is Sara River. I'm a marine biologist and actually studying the flora and fauna of the reefs 'round here. And no, I'm not a mermaid," she smiled at the young sailor. "My research station lies in a depth of about 4m. That's no hard dive so I came up here without gear. You know, I already noticed your tender yesterday, but at first, I thought you were fishermen. I got curious when you didn't made an attempt to flee the storm last night and then Robert asked me to keep an eye open for two missing sailors this morning and that's why I came up to have a look. Luckily it seems. What are you doing out here with such a small tender? Without any radio or supplies? That's pretty stupid, you should know, you're navy after all."

Buffer cleared his throat, you could imagine the slightly red cheeks under the sunburned skin.

"Long story short, a plan didn't work out as is should. We were due to bring the FFV LOTUS to Cairns, but it wasn't seaworthy after all. That we discovered too late obviously." He coughed again and groaned. "My head is killing me."

"You have a sunstroke, I guess."Sara, who had looked after Spiders scratches while the older sailor was talking, looked up. "These are not deep but you should clean them thoroughly nonetheless. You could easily get an infection with these kind of scratches and sea water."

Spider shuddered. "I know, believe me. That won't happen again."

"Oh, well then. Let's have a look at you", she said to Buffer, who tried to stand up and wave at the closing in Hammersley. "You shouldn't stand up. Nor try to do that on your own. No wonder your head hurts. Take it easy, I help you."

She steadied the seaman and together they watched the warships approach. The tender started to roll as the waves of the ship's propeller reached them.

"Hey there, everything alright?" A clear woman's voice sounded over the water.

"I've got two sailors down here who are in need of medical treatment. I guess these are the two you are missing?" Sara answered with a question on her own.

"Yes, thank you, Miss River. Are they able to climb aboard or should we sent the RHIB?"

Buffer pushed Sara's hand away, that still steadied him and squared his shoulders. "We climb, X," he replied himself before Sara could speak a word. The seaman helped Spider up and together they stood weak-kneed as the rope ladder was lowered.

"Made friends already? Only you two could get lost in a storm and be found with a beautiful girl at your side!" A grinning blonde seaman gave Spider a hand, helping the exhausted young man aboard the Hammersley. "You gave us quite a scare, you know. Good to see you two well and around." a female voice sounded from above. Buffer looked up to the railing, from where the last sentences came. "Thank you X. We're glad to be back too." He turned around to the girl, who had climbed aboard after Spider. "X, this is Sara River, she's a..." "...marine biologist, we know", a tall sailor interrupted him. "We already talked, welcome on the Hammersley, Miss River. I'm Mike Flynn, the CO of the Hammersley." "Thank you, Sir. By the way, permission to come aboard?" she asked with a stunning smile. "That's what you guys ask, is it not? I want to do this the right way, after all this is my first navy ship." "Permission granted", the CO smiled back at her then turned around. "Swain, take a look at them, just to make sure everything is alright." he said to another sailor who was standing at the deck next to him. "Sure, come on guys, lets get you two checked and under a shower" Swain said implying to screw up his nose. "You both need one I'd say." "You're the physician aboard?" Sara asked. "They're both dehydrated, possible sunstroke, sunburns and some scratches that need cleaning, but nothing too serious as far as I can tell. Oh and some bruised rips, so probably light duty for him" she said while pointing a finger at Spider.

She looked at the surprised faces around her. "You have to learn some stuff when you're at a research station and on your own for some weeks. I guess you can call me the stations paramedic or at least kind of." "Well then we're kind of colleges" Swain replied, smiling at her. "I'm not a physician but the first medical officer aboard. I heard you were alone down there, so your job must be boring some times?" "You know, usually we are two or three down there. But it's holiday season, so we're taking terms to keep the reef under constant surveillance. Next month, my college is coming and taking over and I'm off for two nice months without work. Looking forward to it, I have to say."

The seamen nodded sympathetically. If someone knew what it meant to be away from home for a long time, it was them.

"How are they?" The X sticked her head around the door of the wardroom. Swain looked up: "X, they're fine. As Sara already said, a few bruises and scratches, nothing serious. And light duty for Spider, he has in fact some bruised ribs." "Well then go take a shower and get yourself something to eat and a good nights sleep. We can talk tomorrow. CO and I want to know what went wrong." Spider and Buffer looked at each other, then Spider said: "This is going to be unpleasant."

Buffer just nodded in agreement.

"And this is the wardroom" a young female voice sounded in the passage outside. Sarah peeked over the shoulder of a brownhaired small sailor. "I see." She looked around curiously. "So this is your domain", she asked Swain. "Cool, wish we had something like that down there. You got a pretty nice ship." she said turning to the X. "Thank you. We hadn't been introduced, I think. I'm Lieutenant Kate McGregor, the XO. Did Bomber already show you everything?" "We were on our way up to the bridge, X." the young sailor answered instead of Sara. "Well then I will accompany you two. Bomber, lead the way please." The three women left the wardroom. Spider turned round to Buffer. "You're really sure she isn't a mermaid?" But Buffers answer was interrupted. "Guys, go take a shower and leave my domain", Swain emphasised the last two word,"I still do have other things to do then listening to your daydreaming." He laughed. "I tell Bomber to bring you something to eat."

"Welcome to the bridge, Miss River." The CO was standing in front of the command chair. "This is Leading Seaman Leo Kosov-Meyer" he pointed at the blonde sailor at the seat in front of the EOD, she recognised him as the one that helped her on board earlier "and these are Officer Andy Thorpe and Leading Seaman Robert Dixon, our RO. I understand you two already knew each other?" "Oh really, RO why didn't you tell anybody you have such a stunning friend?" The young blonde sailor stood up and hold out his hand. "You can call me 2Dads." Sara shook hands with everyone and then turned 'round to the RO again. "Nice to meet you finally in person" she said. "I couldn't quite imagine a face to the voice up 'till now. Thanks for the warnings, our equipment wouldn't be intact if it wasn't for you." Sara faced the others. The X and the CO seemed to know what she meant, the others had confused looks on their faces. "Was this a secret? I hope not, I'm sorry if I'd spoiled something." "No, it's ok" Mike Flynn answered. "RO was informing Sara and her colleges of the last two naval exercises in the region so they could get their equipment out of the water." he explained. "We do have some pretty sensitive hydrophones down there and with your ships testing sonar equipment..." The sentence trailed of. Sara looked astonished. "Sorry but this is stunning, I should have done this much earlier. Coming on the bridge of such a big ship I mean." The scientist was looking out of the front window where the sun sets and the ocean was shimmering like liquid mercury in front of a bright orange and red sky. The upper part of it was already coloured in a darker blue. The Seamen smiled. They didn't notice the beauty most of the time, but they all could remember their first sunset on the bridge. It was impressing. "It's getting dark really fast out here, you shouldn't dive anymore. What do you think about testing our ships cook? You could stay on the ship overnight and go back to your research station tomorrow morning." "Thanks a lot, Sir. I didn't brought a torch with me and company while having dinner, you definitely got me with this. I already started talking to the sea turtles down there. Last time I didn't eat alone was... I don't even remember. And what ever your cook is making for dinner, I'm sure it's better then the tinned food I had for the last four weeks. Supplies are coming only ones a month and there's not much fresh food because we don't have any storage room left."

"You're welcome. RO, could you inform Bomber that we have a guest for tonight? And Lieutenant McGregor can show you where you can change." Sara looked down at herself, she was still wearing the short wet suit, the upper part lowered so you could see the bikini top under it. Standing there with bare feet and the towel around her shoulders, Seaman Kosov-Meyer, 2Dads she corrected herself, had given her earlier when she came aboard the ship, she felt suddenly pretty awkward. Being alone for her one for most of the last two month, she made a habit of staying in her Bikini all day, just drying herself just enough to not making everything wet because she hated to change every hour to look after a malfunctioning hydrophone outside the station. She blushed. "Thanks again. I guess I stayed alone for too long. Turtles don't keep an eye on style, you know." "Come with me, let's see if we can find you something dry and more comfortable." Kate turned to leave the bridge. And definitely something that covers more, she added silently after noticing the looks the male sailors sent after the biologist.

Five o'clock the next morning, Sara stood at the ship's stern and let her gaze wander over the waves. It was dawning but a few last stars could still be seen on the lightening sky. When she massaged her temple she looked pale and tired. Hearing a scratching sound behind her she swung around hands up in defence. The coxswain stood in the door, holding his hands up with a soothing gesture.

"I'm sorry, don't get a fright, it's only me, Swain. I saw you from the bridge. You're up early. Couldn't sleep anymore?" "I tend to stand up early" the young woman replied then paused. "Well no, to be honest, it's the ship. It was heeling the hole night, it still is. It makes me feel dizzy and sick. I thought fresh air would help but it hadn't quite the effect I hoped for. You should think a marine biologist would have sea legs, no? I feel sick and I'm really angry with myself. I'm out on the ocean for over two month now and not for the first time at all. Why do I get sea sick? That's embarrassing!" Swain smiled sympathetically. "Come with me, I can give you something that stops the dizziness and should make you feel better in no time. I won't tell anybody I promise. And you know, technically your not on the ocean, your on the bottom of it. Your research station doesn't heel, right? So your body didn't get a chance to get used to it." They reached the wardroom without anyone taking notice and Swain opened a small cupboard, handing over some pills to Sara. "Take these with some water and you should feel better. Don't mention it" he said when Sara started a reply "we're kind of colleges after all, so we should stick together, shouldn't we?" She smiled. "I guess we should."

"So tell me, who did you two end up in a small tender without any equipment? We left you on a FFV that seemed to be seaworthy, no problems with the motor or the bilge-pump. There where no fishermen on the ship, all you had to do was bring it back to Cairns. Buffer, you checked the ship with Charge yourself. I hope you have a good explanation." Mike Flynn was looking at the two sailors in front of him, trying to show his best I'm-really-angry-with-you-look. In fact, he was glad to see them both well and alive, he had reproached himself for not checking weather conditions before allowing them to bring the FFV to Cairns. Had he known of the approaching storm, he hadn't allowed anyone of his crew to be on board of this old ship. Spider looked like a child who was told there would be no Christmas this year. He felt obviously uncomfortable with the situation. Buffer answered at last: "Yes Sir, Charge and I checked the LOTUS, seemed ok. I thought young Spider and I could have a nice trip to Cairns, no problems visible." "Visible? Did you actually check the bilge-pump? Or just look at it?" This was the X joining the conversation. Buffer looked at Spider then Charge. "It was my fault, X. I thought we wouldn't need it, weather looked fine, ship looked fine. I told Charge I checked it." "But you didn't?" "No, X, I didn't. I know this is inexcusable."

"Yes it is. What did you think. You nearly get yourself and Spider killed. One should think an experienced sailor as you are would be paying close attention to such things. Of all personal aboard the Hammersley, I thought you would be the last one..." The sentence trailed of. Angrily the CO banged his fist on the table. Everyone flinched. "What was it, Buffer?" "It was me, Sir." Spider squared his shoulders but was unable to look in the eyes of his superior officer. "I'm sorry, Sir. I guess I was just excited to get the opportunity to be on this mission with Buffer and I talked a lot and I kind of diverted him. He wanted to check the bilge-pump but I wanted to go off fast so I... it was stupid." "Yes it was! From both of you. This will be in your record and I want an official report from both of you. And now go before I find something else."

Buffer and Spider left the room as fast as they could without running. Kate turned round to Mike. "When did you last check the bilge-pump of a FFV?" "I would do if I had to stay on it for a longer time." Mike answered. He sighed. "I'm sure this won't happen again any time soon. You know, I should have checked weather conditions. I'm as much responsible then they are." He rubed his eyes and sighed again. Kate wondered if she should pat his shoulder for support but didn't dare because the door was standing open and anyone on the passage outside could see them. "Something else. What about our guest? NAVCOM asked me to thank her for helping us with this oficially before she leaves." "I saw her with Swain this morning, it seemed they had some chat among colleges. And Bird said she would show her where to get breakfast so she could be in the juniors mess."

"Now tell us, how did you end up in this tender, mate?" 2Dads was pacing the mess impatiently. "How did you met her?" He pointed with his head in the direction of Sara, who was standing outside in the passage talking with Bomber over the counter of the galley and smiled innocently when the biologist turned around with a plate of fresh fruits and one of Bombers famous muffins.

"May I sit down with you two?" Both sailors made room and adjusted a chair for her. Sara smiled and sat down at the bench. She smelled at the muffin and sighed. "Rebecca you sure you don't like to come with me? I'm going to miss this. I like your ship, really. Well everything except the heeling and rolling thing. But for this" - she looked at the muffin and the fresh fruits - "I could get used to it." She looked at Spider. "I overheard you where going to tell the story about how you ended up in the tender? I'm curious."

Spider looked embarrassed. "It's not something you want to talk about, really." "Oh please, tell us." Able Seaman Rebecca Brown, called Bomber, joined the three.

"Ok, I tell you but just because I think Sara has the right to know. Not you two" he pointed at his crewmates. "It all started like any other transferral. The night came and with it the storm. It hit us really hard and there was a lightning-strike that short-circuited the radio and then the bilge-pump started to splutter and stopped and we had water ingress. We tried to stop it but it was too much. The ship started to sink. I tried to launch the tender but a wave washed me overboard. I hit the ships hull thats where I got my ribs bruised. Buffer throwed the lifebelt to me managed to get me back on board. We launched the tender together and then had the worst night ever. Belive me I don't want to make this experience ever again in my whole life. We waited the whole next day for the Hammersley, our radio was left on the LOTUS when it went down. I left it at the bridge when the water came in and we tried to get the bilge-pump working. And then there was the mermaid... I'm sorry, Miss River..." Spider blushed and stammered. "I mean... you...you know..." "It's ok, Spider, I'm kind of flattered. No-one ever called me mermaid. Kind of matching, isn't it? I' mean, I did live under water for most of the last two month. And mermaids are cute and beautiful so I take this as a compliment." She looked up when someone was clearing his throat outside the mess. "Commander Flynn, good morning. Thank you for letting me stay overnight. Are we still in range of the station? I got the feeling we drifted the whole night." "No, everything is as it was yesterday, we are right on top of your home."

to be continued


	2. Chapter 2

****** Chapter 2

"Look at them, it's always the same. You could get the impression that Spider was right with his mermaid tale. Is there any male sailor on board who's not standing down there?"

Bomber stood outside the bridge with Kate and looked down to the stern, where Sara was preparing to leave the Hammersley. The CO was talking to her, Swain was there too and Buffer as well. Spider and 2Dads stood at one of the doors, chatting and trying to look as if they had something really important to talk about that couldn't be done inside the ship. Kate smiled.

"Remember the story I told you about the female sailor we had to rescue several times? I hope it doesn't turn out like this. Did you see RO anywhere? I thought he would be down there too and say good bye, after all he's the only one that actually knows her."

"No, I didn't. And honestly, I couldn't believe it when Sara told me that he had always talked a bit when sending her the NAVCOM warnings. Can't imagine RO to just talk to someone about personal things. That's kind of weird."

Someone came outside and cleared his throat. Both women turned. RO stood behind them, looking suspicious.

"What's weird? What where you talking about?" he asked.

Bomber blushed. "Ah, just girlie talk. Nothing you need to know."

Now it was Robert's turn to blush. He never knew what to say or do in situations like this. Why did people have to be so complicated? He shook his head in confusion.

"Anyway, why aren't you down there saying good bye to your friend?" Bomber wanted to know.

RO sighed. "As I already emphasised while talking with 2Dads, Miss River is not my friend. We just had sporadic radio contact when there are naval exercises in the region. As for my understanding this doesn't make us friends. And I did already say good bye when I met her on my way to the bridge this morning. I'm on duty so I sure won't go down there" - he pointed with his head to the stern - "to queue up in the line of admirers. As for duty"- he addressed the X - "coastwatch asked if we could assist. Their plane discovered wreckage in the water a few miles north-east of Willis Islet. I already talked to the weather station there, they said the storm hit them hard and that it could be some of the equipment they just got yesterday. It was stored on a barge anchored alongside the quay. The barge is gone now. Thankfully there was no personal on it. They did have some kind of party and didn't notice the storm nor barge getting lost as it seems. They discovered just an hour ago that it's gone. Party must have gone on some time, coastwatch said they couldn't reach them up till two hours ago."

RO made no attempt to hide the disapproval in his voice.

"Thank you Robert. I'll go and tell the CO. Please inform coastwatch and NAVCOM that we have a look as soon as Miss River left the ship."

The X turned and went inside. Before closing the door, she turned round again and said with a smile: "But tell them it could take some time as I'm last in the queue now."

Bomber burst out laughing, she couldn't help it. The radio officer's perplexed face was just too funny. RO was confused. What was that about now? Should he seriously...? Women, he said to himself. They were just a little bit more difficult to understand then other people.

* * *

"Miss River, NAVCOM wants me to thank you officially for your help. We are fortunate that we found our crew members that fast. I won't think of what could have happened if it wasn't for your help. The tender drifted some distance in the storm. It would have taken some time to find it."

Mike looked at her with his ice-blue eyes, wearing a serious expression now.

"If you need any help any time, please don't hesitate and contact us. You do have a really dangerous job out here." He couldn't tell her that he was kind of worried about her. That wouldn't be appropriate in front of the other seamen. And he knew that there actually was nothing to worry about but he just had this unsettling feeling... She was such a petite woman, all alone in the middle of nowhere and he knew what dangers lay out there.

Sara returned his gaze with her stunning smile.

"And again I have to thank you Commander Flynn. I sure will contact you if I need any help but I hope this won't be any time soon. Which doesn't meant I didn't appreciate your offer... I just don't want to contact you... er ...'cause that would mean... ." Sara started to stutter. If he just wouldn't look at her this way. It made her jumpy and she couldn't think straight any more. She cleared her throat.

"Ah, well you know what I meant. See, there is nothing more dangerous down there than curious sea turtles and malfunctioning coffee machines. Both I can handle." _Well done, situation saved_, she thought to herself.

"See how she smiles at the Boss? Wish she would look at me with that smile just one time." 2Dads grabbed Spider by his shoulder and they both looked over to the CO and Sara.

"Did she tell you anything about herself while you where alone on that tender? Where does she live? Did you get her number?"

Spider looked at his crew mate dumbfounded. "What do you think we did out there? Buffer and I were lucky we survived this time. We just could have drowned or died of thirst. Honestly, I did not think of asking her out when she turned up."

"I'm sorry, this was stupid. But I'm really interested. Maybe I should ask RO; he seems to know her." 2Dads shrugged. "He's denying it but I'm sure I can get him to tell me."

"Tell you what?"

The question made both Spider and 2Dads jump to attention.

"X, er... we just talked about..." 2Dads looked at Spider, pleading for help. Spider returned his gaze, mouthing "that's totally your problem".

"As much as I would like to hear the answer, which is no doubt interesting, I don't have the time to wait until it comes to your mind what to say. Aren't you two on duty? Just go back to your work now, show is over." Lieutenant McGregor went away without anything else, didn't give the young men time to recover and answer. What they couldn't see was the little smile that played on her lips. She had overheard most of the conversation. Bomber was right. It was always the same. She quickly crossed the space between the door and the group of sailors standing at the rail and addressed the CO.

"Sir, coastwatch asked for our assistance. I told RO to tell them we are on our way as soon as our guest has left. There is wreckage in the water north-east of Willis Islet. So far, there's no one reported missing so it just seems to be a problem for shipping."

Sara, wearing her wet suit again, standing with her flippers and diving goggles in hand, turned to Swain.

"So it's time to say good bye. It was nice meeting you. Wish I could have stayed longer."

She lowered her voice. "And thanks again for your help this morning. Keep an eye on Spider" she added, now as loud as before. "He doesn't look like the guy who leans back and lets others work but he really should be careful with his ribs. There's no way of telling if they aren't broken after all."

Swain nodded. "Sure I will. Be careful yourself, even sea turtles and coffee machines can harm you if you're not wary. CO was right, just contact us if you need help. It really wasn't a good idea to let one of you stay out here alone. You should have made teams." he added. Then he smiled. "I would have liked to see how you live down there."

Sara laughed. "You know 2Dads and Spider asked as well. And honestly I'm glad you can't come right now. I didn't had time to clean up the mess. But I can send you some pictures if you like, I do have Roberts email address. He can forward mail." She ignored the surprised faces, turned to Buffer and smirked.

"Don't do this again, me and my mermaid colleagues do have other work to do." In a more serious tone she added: "I hope your head is better now. You should better take it easy for the next few days as well. And don't be too angry with ourself. You know, even smart people do stupid things. I once tried to dive without a compass. I couldn't find it and didn't have the patients to look for it. I was lucky to find my way back to the boat that time. What happened can't be changed. I'm sure you won't get yourself in that situation again."

Sara then shook hands with both of them and the CO, gave Kate a hug, put on her diving goggles and made a big stride over the edge. With a splash, she entered the water, gave the okay-signal with her right arm forming an 'O' and soundlessly disappeared into the waves.

* * *

A few days later, RO was arguing with 2Dads, who had knocked on the door of the communications room.

"Come on RO, you could just show me what she wrote. What's the problem? She told me she would send some pictures and you could forward mail."

"Which is exactly what I did." RO interrupted.

"No it isn't. You printed them out and hung them on the noticeboard in the mess."

"So you saw the pictures. What's your problem, 2Dads? I need to work so please get to the point or get out." The radio officer was getting visibly irritated.

"My Problem?" 2Dads shouted now. "You do have a problem. I just wanted to see the mail she wrote and maybe answer her, thanking her for the pictures, asking what is going on down there."

"Miss River is fine, with lots of work to do, sends greetings to all of you and I have already thanked for the pictures. Satisfied now? You better be 'cause I sure won't give you any email address. That is personal information and if she wanted you to know, she would have told you." With this, he shut the door in the blonde seaman's face.

2Dads snorted. This was typical. RO could be a pain in the neck with his correctness. But he was going to get the information he wanted, 2Dads swore that he would to himself. He turned and went to see if he could find Spider. Together they could make a plan to trick RO. The blonde smirked. See who laughs last, Mr. Hypercorrect.

Inside the communications room, Robert sat down in his chair and ran his fingers absently through his hair. He hadn't told 2Dads the whole truth. Sara River had asked for his opinion as a communications expert. There were some readings that she had gotten but she couldn't make any sense of them and asked if he could help. He was fairly sure what it could be, she had described it very clearly but he wanted to hear it before he commented. That was what he had wrote to her. There was no answer 'till now. Which wasn't unusual. The scientists down there always had problems with their equipment. The research station was old-fashioned and under the constant threat of being shut down. She would send the file when she could. No need to be worried. That's why he hadn't told 2Dads. He didn't even inform the Boss. But there still was this little voice inside his head. Something could be wrong. If it was what he thought it could be, it shouldn't be there. And that was what kept nagging him.

_hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I had fun with writing it :-)_


	3. Chapter 3

******Chapter 3

"This is the last one. Just put the rest on the pier."  
Charge handed her over a large packet. Bomber was relieved. This was the last piece of equipment they had to discharge. Finally. It felt like weeks ago that they had managed to fish out most of the lost equipment from the Willis Islet barge. It had been packed in watertight containers that stayed on the surface for some time before sinking. Then they were ordered to help with the relief and clean-up on the other islands that had been hit by the storm. In between she had helped Swain with the injured.  
Now they just finished unloading some equipment for the local technical support service. She couldn't think of what the men could have possibly ordered that was so heavy. _Probably ordered stones_ she guessed. It must have been something like that. Her arms felt like jelly and she wasn't sure whether she had any muscle in her body left that didn't aches. Actually the whole crew was exhausted; she could see her crew mates sitting around at the deck or the pier, massaging their aching muscles or just relaxing in the warm late morning sun.  
Bomber was sure of one thing: If she had to board a RHIB the next few hours, she would just fall overboard with the first wave. The young woman let herself drop on one of the bitts near the gangway of the Hammersley and stretched out her legs. Maybe the Boss would give them the day off. She could go to the beach and sunbath, just do nothing and relax. The seashore looked promising from here, white sand, smooth waves, no people around. She could probably take one pair of the binoculars with her and see if she could spot some Red-footed Boobies. Charge had told her of these birds and she didn't believe him at first. He had said that they had feet as red as blood and that there were even some with azure-blue feet. These birds are spectacular divers, he had said, they plunge into the ocean at high speeds to catch prey but are very clumsy when it comes to landing and take-off.  
But on the other hand, her bunk seemed a place worth to be as well. She drew up her legs and laid her head on her knees.

"You ok?" Swain knelt down before her, a hand on her shoulder. "You should get some rest. When did you last slept and eat something, Bomber?"  
He sounded concerned. She lifted her head and looked at him with bleary eyes.  
"Could ask you the same question, Swain. You look like how I feel. Don't worry, I'm ok, just let me sit here for a while." She reassured him.  
Swain patted her back. "Okay. Just make sure you get some rest and a decent meal later on." He stood up and entered the gangway, saluting wearily to the watch on deck.

2Dads plumped down on the pier next to Bomber and massaged his nape.  
"I'm dead beat. Hope we don't have to sail today." He looked up at her, smiling sheepishly. "Maybe we could go to the beach if we do get some time off?"  
"That sounds like a plan! I'm coming with you." Spider entered the gangway and grinned brightly.  
"What's with you? How comes you are in such a good mood? Did you sleep through the last few days? 'Cause you seem to have too much energy left. Maybe I should bruise my ribs the next time." 2Dads grumbled. He had hoped to have some time alone with Bomber. The other sailor looked hurt. He had wanted to help but Swain had ordered him to light duty and so he had had to sit at the bridge and help RO coordinate the teams. It wasn't his fault he wasn't allowed to join them with the hard work. Spiders face lit up.  
"Boss said we can have the day off. We're to leave tomorrow morning at 1100 hours. All personal that isn't on watch is free to have some fun. I already looked. You two are the perfect companions for my plans. You are not on watch tonight so we're going to have fun. Come on. Go get changed. I heard they have pool table, darts and table tennis up there in the local bar."  
He was completely ignoring that he still had his ribs bandaged and that Swain surely wouldn't approve to his sports plans. Bomber heaved herself to her feet.  
"I'm sorry guys. As much as I'd liked to see you lose, you have to go play without me. I'm due for a shower and a meeting with my bunk. But thanks for the offer."  
She squeezed herself past Spider and disappeared through the door at the portside.  
2Dads shrugged. "That leaves us two. That's good because I hadn't had the chance to talk to you about something." He stood up and put his arm around his crewmember, leading him away from the ship. "Remember your mermaid...?"  
Spider sighed. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

There it was again. Sara slammed the book she had been reading in the corner. It landed between some shirts and a week old newspaper. She frowned. _I really do have to clean up this mess_ she made a mental note for herself. A week ago, everything seemed perfect, it had all started so well. Her colleague Tom had called and told her that he would come back earlier than planned. Something with his ex-wife, something about problems at home he wanted to get away from. Something like this, she couldn't remember the exact words. She had packed in no time, waiting eagerly for the ship that would bring her to the mainland, impatient to get off this old wreck. It was getting on her nerves. The hydrophones had broken down two more times, then the radio wouldn't work any more, coffee machine short-circuited and what had put her over the edge was the next call, Tom again. He sounded stressed but that wasn't the real problem.  
"Sara I have to keep you waiting, I'm sorry. Jenny's at the hospital and I have to take care of the kids. Just stay in there for a week, I'm sure getting everything organised 'till then. Don't worry about the hydrophones, I'll fix them when I come back. One week without won't do any harm. Make yourself comfortable, I already talked to the institute, all experiments are postponed, just leave everything as is. Your holiday starts right now. Just not at the expected way. Sorry again, bye." With this he hung up.  
She couldn't blame him, Jenny was his sister after all. But this wasn't fair. Sure she had fixed the hydrophones herself, both times. She wanted to know what it was that she had heard a few weeks ago for the first time. She had described it to Tom who had sounded stressed when she had told him. Then he had tried to convince her that it was nothing worth investigating. That she had wondered about but she had let the matter drop. Then the sound had come back. She sent an email to Robert, asking for his expertise. Of course he had asked for a sound file. She managed to get the hydrophones working again and actually recorded the sounds. Which she couldn't send him because, of course, the internet had broken down the day after. She then decided to just wait for Tom and let him have all the fun. But no, not even reading was allowed it seemed.

"What was that for crying out loud?!" she asked herself.  
A high-pitched 'bing' sounded through the station. And again, and again. It was nerve-wracking. And it was getting louder. Sara stopped short. This was new. She looked at her sonar readings and frowned again. Could this be...?  
"I have to reach RO, he would know" she mumbled to herself and grabbed the radio. The watch caught her gaze, it showed 2200 hours.  
"HMAS Hammersley, this is Sara River on channel 19, please respond."  
_Please please please let it work this time_, she prayed silently. A static crackle, nothing...  
She tried again. "Australian Warship Hammersley, this is Sara River on channel 19, please respond." Nothing but crackle...  
"Dammit!" Sara cursed and hit her fist on the console.  
Then...  
"Miss River, this is the RO of HMAS Launceston speaking. How can we be of assistance?"  
"Oh, er, hi." Sara wasn't sure what to say next. She hadn't expected anyone else to answer her call.  
"Do you have an emergency, Miss River?"  
"No, not exactly. But I really have to talk to the RO of HMAS Hammersley right away."  
"Well, we can try to patch you through then." The radio officer wondered if there was a new RO assigned to Hammersley. He had met the old one once and couldn't imagine someone actually wanting to talk to this person.  
"Thanks a lot, Sir." Sara waited impatiently. Why did this take so long? She paced back and forth in the little space between the radio console and the wall. Finally she heard the voice she had hoped for. There was a lot of static but it was definitely Robert's.

"Miss River, this is the RO of Hammersley speaking. Good to hear from you. Got worried when you didn't send the sound file."  
Despite her distress, Sara smiled. She had told him long ago he could call her Sara but he insisted on the more formal 'Miss River'.  
"RO, thank god. Sorry for calling so late. Listen I don't know how long the radio is going to work this time, there's much more tape than wires. The sound is back and it is getting louder this time. I can't send you the file right now there's technical problems but maybe you can hear it in the background. I do have an idea what it could be. Tell me, you don't have any secret naval activities out here, do you? 'Cause I figured out where I last heard something like this. It was the high-frequency output of a minehunter."  
"As far as I'm informed, there are no minehunters out there, Miss River. I check with NAVCOM and call you back."  
"Thanks Robert. I'll be here for another week, my colleague is delayed, so take your time. I'm going to shut off the hydrophones and hope that whatever causes this sound is going to leave soon. Can't hear it any more. And I do hope it isn't a minehunter 'cause that would mean they found something I don't want to have near my station. At least not when I'm on it." _Nor anyone else of course_, she silently sent an excuse to her colleagues.  
"I'll contact you as soon as I know more, I promise. And Sara – take care of you. RO out."

This was the first time he had called her by her first name. Was that a good or a bad sign? She didn't know. The young woman bent over to the control board to switch off the hydrophones. Then she secured the USB drive with the sound file in her pocket. When she heard a sound from the back of the station, she swung around. It came from the moon pool. Sara stood up, suddenly getting goose-pimples.  
"Tom, is this you?" No answer. _Great, now I start to hear the ship's kobold_, she thought and turned around again to see whether she could find her book. It really was time for her holiday. She couldn't finish the thought. Something hit her hard on the head. Her vision got blurred, the last thing she saw were two figures in black wet suits. She could feel her knees buckle. Then nothing but blackness.

* * *

Someone was hammering on the door. Mike Flynn rubbed his eyes and tried to decipher the numbers on his watch. 0230. What could possibly be so important at this time in the night? They had reached port late the day before and he went home for a good nights sleep in his own bed after checking in with Commander White at NAVCOM. Hammersley was laying in port, watch was set, X had the ship. There could be no problems. He stood up and reached for his trousers. The hammering went on.  
"I'm coming." He went downstairs, nearly tripping over his shoes on the way. Opening the door a crack, he looked in the pale face of his radio officer.  
"RO, what the hell are you doing here? It's in the middle of the night."  
He opened the door completely and let the young officer in.  
"Sir, I'm sorry I had to disturb you at this time of the night. We tried to contact you over the mobile but you didn't answer."  
"Yes, battery is dead. What is it? You look like you've seen a ghost. Here, have a seat."  
He shoved the young man to a chair and with slight pressure forced him to sit down.  
"Now, what is it?" he asked again and pulled himself a chair in front of his RO.  
"I think we do have a problem. Well not we exactly but Miss River. You remember her?"

Of course he did. Mike had thought of her several times over the last few days. He couldn't lose the bad feeling he had had when she left and had wanted to ask RO to contact her and see if everything was ok. He forgot in the chaos of the storms aftermath. Now his bad feeling came back.  
"Miss River? What's with her?" he asked trying hard to sound calm.  
"She contacted me some days ago shortly after we met her. She asked if I could help her with some readings she could make no sense of. She said that she would sent me a sound file which she never did. As you know, the station is really old and there where communication problems before. So I didn't get worried. But yesterday at 2200 she contacted the Hammersley and reported the same sound she had heard before. Sir, she said she thought she was listening to the high-frequency output of a minehunter."  
"Minehunter?" Mike Flynn was alarmed.  
"Yes. I heard the sound over radio, it sounded similar. I contacted NAVCOM to ask if there are any warnings for the region but NAVCOM didn't sent out a minehunter. So I carried out some investigations at the harbour masters office. There is no hydrographic survey ship out there either, nor any other ship that should be possible to create that kind of sound." He paused than continued.  
"Sir, do you remember the report HMAS Kingston sent last month?"  
The CO paled. "You're thinking of..." His voice trailed off. If RO was right, the young biologist was in deeper trouble than he had feared. He stood up.  
"Inform NAVCOM, we have to leave immediately."  
RO was at the door already. "That's why I'm here, Sir. We already got order from NAVCOM. All attempts to reach the research station failed and the marine institute she is working for is really worried. They also lost contact to the colleague who should have taken over this week. Hammersley has been crash-sailed. We're due to leave at 0300."

* * *

"Come on Spider. You have to help me." 2Dads begged. Spider didn't look convinced. He was on night watch and had been on his tour when he had met his fellow sailor in the passage outside the communications room.  
"This is the perfect opportunity. RO just left the ship. I've been waiting for this moment for days. All you have to do is stand guard and make sure that nobody sees me sneaking in and out of the ComCen."  
"You're stupid enough to do this, right? Know how many rules you are breaking with this? If RO finds out..."  
"He won't. And it is in the middle of the night. Everyone is asleep except us and the X at the bridge. Now stop arguing. We don't know how long he will be gone. It's just two minutes, in and out, he'll never notice. I have to have that email address."  
Spider looked at his mate like he had developed a serious mental illness. Then he sighed.  
"2Dads, please. There are plenty of good looking women out there. Why her? Why risking your career for someone you met just once? You barely talked to Miss River."  
"Because RO will be furious when he finds out I contacted her via email." The blonde man smirked. "He won't be able to find out where I got the address from and that is going to drive him nuts."  
"It's all about a prank? Mate there sure has to be an other way to do this then breaking into the communications room." Spider shook his head in disbelief. Sometimes he wondered how his friend had lasted this long in the navy.  
A ringing stopped their argument. 2Dads got his mobile out off the front pocket of his shirt and read the message. He looked up at Spider who returned his gaze expectantly.  
"It says we are crash-sailed. We're leaving at 0300."  
"Guess your stupid little prank has to wait then. Let's go to the bridge and find out what happened." Spider swung around and lead the way, 2Dads right on his heels.

Up at the bridge, Kate McGregor was getting reports of the crew members that had checked in. She looked up when she overheard footsteps on the staircase.  
"Spider, 2Dads. Good to see you. RO is picking up the CO. As soon as they are on board, we leave port. Spider go and see if you can find Swain and Buffer, I need them to get the ship out of port and the crew ready."  
"Yes ma'am." The seaman hurried down to do what he had been told. The X's voice didn't sound like she would have appreciated any questions right now.  
"2Dads, go wake up Charge. We need all the power he can get out of the engines." She looked at his blue shorts and the flower-printed shirt and raised her eyebrow.  
"And go get changed. Shore leave is over."

* * *

_As holidays are coming soon, I wish you all a peaceful christmas time :-)_


	4. Chapter 4

******Chapter 4

The minute Hammersley had left the port and was on their way to the open sea, Commander Flynn ordered his senior sailors to the ship's office. He closed the door behind him and looked around. Swain and Buffer where standing at the wall, waiting calmly for what to come, chatting silently with each other. Kate sat at the table, next to her was sitting a nervous RO fiddling with his fingers. Charge had excused himself, he was trying to fix what the nav techs couldn't finish due to crash-sail. After all they had been supposed to be grounded for at least two more days.

"I'm going to tell you something you need to know. But this is not going to leave this room, did I made myself clear?" Everyone nodded, now he had their full attention.  
"Last month, HMAS Kingston tried to board a suspected FFV. They had to abort the boarding due to heavy fire. Commander of the Kingston reported highly armed and well trained personal on the other ship. Their RO said he had heard some high-frequency outputs just before they located the FFV. That's why they wanted to investigate. NAVCOM later found out that the owner of the ship was suspected of gunrunning and drug trafficking. Feds never could establish proof of it. NAVCOM and Feds are currently running secret surveillance ops but there is nothing so far. They do suspect that he uses a submarine to bring the weapons and drugs over the boarder. That happened before."  
Mike looked around.  
"What is new is that they can't locate the submarine. This high-frequency outputs seem to be the key to it though." He looked at Robert invitingly.  
The communications officer took over. "As you all know, sonar has a wide variety of techniques for identifying the source of a detected sound. There's a databases to identify classes of ships, their actions and even particular ships. A well trained operator can identify most of the sounds without even check that database. For example, a US submarine does usually operate 60 Hz alternating power systems where as..."  
"RO, just the short version please." the CO interfered impatiently.  
"Sure Sir. As I said, you can identify a vessel by his sound. This high-frequency outputs the RO of the Kingston overheard seem to come from that submarine we are looking for. They were described as to be similar to that of a minehunter but not exactly the same. Unfortunately they didn't record the sound so we do have no comparative rule."  
"Up until now that is." Mike took over again. "A few weeks ago Miss River contacted RO to ask for his expertise. She wanted to send him a sound file she had recorded. That didn't happen due to technical problems. Last night she radioed Hammersley and reported the sound again. She described it then as high-pitched and similar to a minehunter or a hydrographic survey ship. RO recorded the call so we do have a sample now."  
He saw it in the faces of the other sailors that they made the same conclusions he had made about an hour ago.  
"It's pretty slightly and in the background and there is a lot of static so we can't be sure what it was." He tried to reassure them. "Problem is we can establish contact neither to the underwater station nor the scientist that was due to take over for Miss River this week. So NAVCOM sent us out to make sure everything is ok."  
"Boss, if she recorded a sound file of this sub and they found out..." Buffer didn't finish his sentence. Nobody in the room dared to think of the consequences.

* * *

0700 in the morning they reached the coordinates they had been heading for full steam the whole night. Charge had done his best, they were there half an hour earlier than expected.  
"Engines to full astern. Stop the ship."  
"Aye Boss, full astern." Buffer, who sat at the helm, carried out the order and then stopped the engines. Swain was standing next to him observing the sea at their bow. It lay silent, ripples indicated a slow breeze, the sun had just come up over the horizon. It all looked so peaceful and still there was something not right.  
"RO, try radio contact again."  
Robert was already on the radio, listening to the crackle, holding his headset with one hand to his left ear so he could hear the commands as well.  
"Nothing so far, Sir. Underwater station, this is the HMAS Hammersley calling you on channel 19. Please respond. I repeat this is the Australian Warship Hammersley, please respond." The static sounded over speaker now. Everyone on the bridge waited, hoping to hear a response. Nothing but silence. A loud ringing made them all jump.  
"Sorry Sir, that's mine." RO apologized. He got his mobile out of his pocket wanting to turn down the caller. He froze in the middle of his movement.  
"What is it, RO? This has to wait!" Mike was sure to lose his patience any second.  
"Sir, I... I think this can't.." the perplexed officer stuttered and answered the call.  
"Robert Dixon speaking." he said with a tremulous voice.  
"Mr. Dixon, glad I reached you. This is Miss River speaking. I heard what confusion I caused and I just wanted to apologize. I'm already on my way back to Darwin, Tom managed to finally take over. About that call last night, sorry to bother you with that. Tom is thinking of a hydrographic survey ship and I do agree with him."  
"RO, you're ok? Who is it?" Anxiously Swain knelt down in front of his crew mate who looked as if he could pass out every minute.  
"Mr. Dixon you're still there?"  
"Yes, I am, Miss River." Someone gasped behind him.  
"Good. Please tell Commander Flynn that I would appreciate his offer – the one for a coffee next time he is in home port at Darwin. And greetings to your ship's doctor Swain."  
"Sara, are you okay? You sound a little out of breath." Robert hurried to say. He wanted to keep her talking to give his brain time to catch up.  
"Sure I am, it's holidays. What could be better? I have to go, good bye Mr. Dixon."  
"RO?" Swain was urging now.  
"This was Miss River." he answered him slowly as if just awaken from a bad dream.  
"She said that she's fine, that what she heard was a survey ship and that her colleague superseded her. She's already on her way back to Darwin."  
All eyes were on RO, no one said a word. One could have heard a pin drop.  
"Sir, there's something not right." He continued. "She called me Mr. Dixon, she never did that before. And she said she would appreciate your offer and wants to go for a coffee when we're back in home port... at Darwin." Robert looked at Swain. "She even asked me to say hello to our ship's doctor."  
Spider found his voice first. "Miss River knows the Hammersley's home port is Cairns. We told her when we waited for you to come and get us."  
Swain nodded slowly. "And she knows for sure that I'm not a doctor."  
"I never asked her out for a coffee." Mike felt stupid but he had to say the obvious nonetheless. Buffer stood up from the helm where he had sat the whole time.  
"No Boss, but I remember you offered her something else: help any time she would need it."  
The CO stared at him for a moment then came to life again.  
"Swain, grab 2Dads. You go for a dive. I want to know what's going on down there. RO try to reach this colleague of her over radio. Buffer, I want a RHIB in the water standing by to pick up our divers."  
"Why does she have his phone number?" 2Dads whispered on his way off the bridge. Swain ignored him.

* * *

The RHIB rolled gently up and down in the ripples. Swain and 2Dads sat on the edge with full diving gear, back to the water.  
"You ready?" Swain asked and put his diving mask on. His crew mate nodded. "Then let's go and have a look. I lead, you follow. Watch out for sharks. There shouldn't be any around at this time of the year but you never know."  
The divers entered the water by rolling backwards overside. 2Dads gave the ok sign and they slowly disappeared. All the others could see were small bubbles and a distant shimmering from the flashlights, then nothing but black water. Now all they could do was wait.

Twenty minutes later, Swain reported over radio.  
"Boss, 2Dads fixed the radio down here. A Mr. Tom Magnus is standing next to me claiming to be the colleague of Miss River. Documents seem to be ok. He says that she left at 2300 last night. He wants to talk to you." There where some shuffling noises.  
"Commander Flynn, this is Tom Magnus. Sara left last night in the Blackbird, the owner is Mr. Jackson, a local fisherman. I felt guilty letting her down and managed to arrange this late night replacement. Sara said she wants to contact you first thing in the morning, didn't she? Is she alright? Mr. Jackson seemed trustworthy to me but you can't look into someone's mind, can you?." The man sounded concerned.  
Mike looked at his X, she looked as confused as he felt.  
"She did call in just minutes ago. But Mr. Magnus, why haven't you answered our calls?" she asked finally. Again there was shuffling in the background then 2Dads answered.  
"X, he couldn't have even if he had wished to do so. You should see this. It's a miracle that there hasn't happened something up till now. The electronics down here, it's a mess. I strongly recommend to shut down this station. It is a high risk for everyone."  
"Thank you 2Dads. Come up then. Mr. Magnus, sorry to disturb you. And please think about Leading Seaman Kosov-Meyers suggestion."  
"I will. Thanks for the help Commander Flynn. Always a pleasure to work with the navy."

* * *

After removing the heavy parts of their diving equipment and handing it up to Buffer, the two divers returned to the RHIB by climbing back in over the soft rounded tubes. Helping hands pulled them up as a support.  
"I wouldn't stay down there for a million dollars." 2Dads shuddered. "It sounded pretty cool but when you're actually there..." His voice petered out.  
"I totally agree with you on that one." Swain said.  
"You know, I always used to think that it's a little cramped on a patrol vessel. But hey, nothing compared to this. Poor Sara. She really should look out for an other job."  
The RHIB came alongside the Hammersley and was hoisted back up on deck which interrupted their conversation. Up on deck, CO was waiting for them.  
"Swain?" he asked.  
"Boss I have no idea. There were no signs of a fight, of anything that could indicate that he isn't saying the truth." The coxswain shook his head in confusion. "I really don't know what to make of it."  
"Neither do I. Go get changed. Debriefing in half an hour in the ship's office." CO turned and climbed through the hatch.

* * *

All eyes were on Mike when he entered the office. He started right away, everyone in the room knew what this was about.  
"You know, while you two" he pointed at Swain and 2Dads "where down there I had a conversation with Commander Marshall. He told me that the marine institute Sara is working for, just called him."  
"Let me guess. They got a phone call as well." Buffer suspected.  
"They did. Miss River called them and told more or less the same story she told RO. It matches the one Mr. Magnus has given us. When Commander Marshall suggested that Miss River could come to NAVCOM to talk about what happened with Buffer and Spider, the director of the institute told him that he doesn't know her whereabouts." He paused then continued. "Miss River told them she would go for an outback trip for a couple of weeks."  
"The outback?" 2Dads sounded surprised. "Why would she go there for holidays? There's no water at all. And she's a marine biologist, right?" He looked around for reassurance. Kate answered. "She told me she loves the ocean. I can't imagine her in a desert."  
"Me neither. That's exactly what I told Commander Marshall."  
"So what are we going to do?" Kate wanted to know.  
"We go back to Cairns, Hammersley gets her repairs, crew gets two days off as was planned and then we continue our patrol."  
"Is that a joke?" Buffer asked in surprise.  
"No, as much as I'd like to say otherwise, it isn't. We can't do anything. Miss River reported back, Mr. Magnus and Mr. Jackson told the same story, Feds don't think there is something worth investigating."  
"But Boss.." 2Dads complained. Buffer clapped his hands twice.  
"You heard the CO. Go back to work. We have a ship to be brought back to port."  
Kate McGregor waited until everyone had left then addressed her superior officer.  
"Sir, wait please. May I speak frankly?"  
"Sure, Kate. What is it?" The CO closed the door and faced her.  
"Mike, this is not right."  
"I know, Kate. And Commander Marshall has the same doubts as we do have. But we really can't do anything at the moment."  
"But the call, it was all wrong..." Mike interrupted her.  
"Kate, if I knew what to do and where to go we would be steaming there with full power no matter what NAVCOM is ordering. But Marshall is right. We just met her once, we don't know why she mixed up the facts. Maybe she had already had some drinks to celebrate her relief? Her boss seemed to believe her story. And you have to admit, this whole secret message thing - it really does sound like a bad murder mystery."

* * *

First thing Sara heard was a soft moaning. She slowly opened her eyes. _Darkness_. _Movement_. There was this moaning again. Finally coming round she realized it was her own voice she had heard. _Where the hell am I?_ She was sure it had to be a ship, there was this heeling and rolling and the distant sound of an engine. But she couldn't remember boarding a ship. _Am I__ still on the Hammersley? Had the pills Swain had given __me__ earlier knocked __me__ out so badly? _Weakly she tried to bring herself in an upright position. That had been a bad idea she found out pretty soon. Everything started to spin round and she could just prevent herself from throwing up over her legs. She quickly lay back again and made a short check of herself._ Head pounding, dizziness, nausea, __loss of memory,_ she definitely had a concussion. But how did she get one? She tried sitting upright once again, taking it more slowly this time, giving her body time to adjust and leaned against the wall for support. This definitely was a ship and she was sitting in a dark room on a small bunk. Before she could figure out how she had ended up there, a door opened and the light from outside blinded her. She flinched and covered her eyes. Or at least she tried. Alarmed she discovered that her hands had been tied together.

"Good morning sunshine. Hope you slept well."  
Sara stared at the man who was standing in the doorway. She couldn't see his face and she didn't recognize his voice.  
"Do I know you Sir? Could you please help me with these ropes?" She held up her tied hands. The man laughed.  
"Sure I could but right at the moment I don't want to. What I want to do is a little talking. Bring her up!" he ordered someone that was standing behind him and left.  
Sara felt herself lifted up quickly and this was it. She couldn't hold back any more and throw up over the guy that had pulled her up.  
His answer came so quick she hadn't had the time to evade. The fist hit her nose and it started bleeding almost immediately.  
"Don't you dare do that again." the man snorted.  
"You too." Sara whispered through gritted teeth and braced herself for the next punch. It didn't come. The man just dragged her up on deck without any further delay.

Up on deck, Sara could see that she was, in fact, on a ship, a small fishing boat it seemed. They laid at anchor, it was still dark but Sara could see the distant lights of a small island. She counted five men including the one that had hit her and was now pushing her to the stern.  
"I see you made friends with Jack?" the man that had ordered her to be brought up asked. "My name's Walker, I'm the captain of this ship" he continued.  
Leaning at the rail, he was scrutinising her from head to toe then sneered.  
"Tom said you were good looking, he didn't exaggerate."  
"What did you do to him?" Sara looked him straight into his eyes and didn't allow herself to show any weakness. The fresh air helped with her dizziness and her head was pounding a little less. She tried to loosen the knots that held her hands together furtively but had no success.  
"To Tom? Nothing, why should I? He was the one who helped us in the first place cause he came up with the submarine idea. You just screwed up everything by recording the sonar signals. We had to stop you before you do anything stupid."  
Sara was shocked. Tom was into this? She had thought he acted a little strange when she had asked him about his opinion but never would she have thought... .  
"You know he asked me to play nice. So sorry about Jack, he's a little rash sometimes."  
"Oh really, didn't notice that." Sara mumbled. Maybe she could swim to the island if she could get her hands free.  
Walker noticed her efforts. "Jack, I don't think we need those any more."  
The one called Jack untied her and Sara massaged her wrists gratefully. The rope had cut deeply into her skin when she had tried to get herself free.  
"See, I'm playing nice." Walker handed her a grey cloth for her still bleeding nose. It smelled awful but Sara used it nonetheless to apply pressure on her nose and hoped it would stop the bleeding. Her eyes started to water, because it hurts so much. "I hope it isn't broken", she murmured under her breath.  
"So maybe you could do me a favour as well?" Walker asked her with a suggestive grin.  
The young woman looked at him with horror and tried hard to stay calm. Slowly she took a few steps towards the rail, pretending to just stretch her legs.  
"What did you have in mind?" she asked casually, hoping he couldn't hear the fear in her voice. Of course he noticed, they all did. Walker laughed.  
"Well not what you had in mind obviously. Although I'm not about to dismiss that idea completely. But for now, I just want to know who else has knowledge about the stuff you have on this USB?" He showed her the small flashdrive she had put in her pocket earlier on.  
"I talked to nobody, I swear. And you came before I could sent it to anyone. Tom must have told you that the internet was down."  
"You know I don't believe that, don't you. We heard you talking on the radio, Tom and I. Who is this Robert you were talking to? Navy? Doesn't matter. You're going to make a phone call now. First this Robert and then your institute." He waved at Jack who pulled out her mobile. Sara carefully made one other step towards the rail.  
"You know, I don't feel like talking at the moment." she said and jumped.

She crawled as fast as she could and didn't look around. If she could just reach the island, she could hide or find some help. After a few meters she noticed that there was no one behind her. She had thought they would try to stop her. Glancing back Sara saw an inflatable closing in. They didn't seem to be in a hurry. And Sara understood. The water was cold, the island farther away than she had estimated. Although being a good swimmer she never had had a chance to reach the dry land. Even if she hadn't been in such a bad condition.  
"Had enough bathing?" Walker called over the water. "If you wanted to take a bath you just could have asked. We even do have warm water aboard." They all laughed. Defeated Sara turned on her back and let herself float until the inflatable reached her. Someone handed her the mobile.  
"Make the calls and I help you out of the water. But you better don't do anything stupid, sunshine. My patience is over!"


	5. Chapter 5

******Chapter 5

"It's ten days now since we heard of her. I still don't think that it was right." Kate was sitting with Mike in the seniors mess, having breakfast.  
"You know I do agree with you but what could we've done? I've asked 2Dads and Spider to have a look at that fisherman, Jackson, while we're in Cairns and they couldn't find anything unusual." He stirred absently in his muesli. "Let's just hope the patrol stays as calm as it was the last few days. Maybe Swain could do some first-aid training with the ..." He couldn't finish his sentence.  
"CO to the bridge at the rush, CO to the bridge at the rush." RO's voice came over the ship's PA.  
"I guess that was a pipe dream." Both stood up and left for the bridge.

"Sir, coast watch plane spotted a possible FFV. We already got coordinates from NAVCOM, it's about 11 miles south-west from our current position."  
"Thanks RO. Swain, get us there as fast as we can. With luck we catch them with longlines still in the water." He turned to Spider. "Is there anything on the EOD, Seaman?  
"No Sir, not yet."  
"Ok, tell me if you spot them. X, I want a boarding party on stand by."  
Kate nodded and gave the order over PA.  
Five minutes later, Spider reported: "Sir, I got a visual. It's the FFV, Boss. It's called..." He tried to decipher the ship's name. "It's called Marlin, Boss."  
Mike Flynn turned round to look at his RO. "Wasn't that the ship the Kingston reported?"  
RO nodded. "Yes Sir. I'm pretty sure it is. I can ask NAVCOM for confirmation though."  
"No, I'm sure too. X, full kevlar, extra plates. I don't want the same disaster happening to us!"

* * *

"You heard the CO, no heroic deeds, no solo efforts! We do that one straight by the book." Kate had to yell to be heard over the RHIB's engine.  
"Marlin, this is the Australian Warship Hammersley. Stop or heave to we intend to board you!" RO's voice sounded over the water.

"Ma'am they're not stopping. Looks like they even do increase speed."  
"I can see that, Buffer, thanks." X answered. She wanted to ask Hammersley for assistance but didn't need to.  
"Marlin, if you don't stop or heave to immediately, I will open fire." came RO's voice again. Kate could hear Mike over the radio as he ordered: "Spider give them a warning signal. 5 rounds. Now."  
Hearing the gunfire and seeing the water splashing in front of their bow seemed to have the effect they all had hoped for.  
"Sir, they stopped the engines and are heaving to."  
"I can see that; go ahead then, X. And be careful!" Mike replied.

* * *

The boarding started as planned, there was little resistance. Kate McGregor already started to wonder if that really was the ship the Kingston had reported.  
"X, deck is secured." Charge reported. "Three fisherman on board, all currently at the stern."  
"Well done. Charge, you're with Bomber, see that they stay there. Buffer with me. 2Dads, Swain have a look below deck, see if you can find anything. And make sure the camera gets everything."  
Buffer followed his superior officer to the wheelhouse. But before they could enter gunfire erupted behind them.

2Dads and Swain had made their way to the hatch which led to the cargo hold. Distracted by something he saw out of the corner of his eye, the younger sailor didn't notice a fourth fisherman who looked out the hatch gun first. Swain yelled a warning but 2Dads reacted too late. The man fired without a warning. 2Dads felt a hit straight in the middle of his breast, fell backwards instantly and went overboard. Swain tried to take cover but there was nothing nearby so he followed his crew mate over the rail. _Better __wet__ then sorry _he thought hitting the water hard. The X and Buffer had seen the whole incident back from the wheelhouse.  
"2Dads was shot, he went overboard! Swain's down too." Kate yelled already on her way back to the stern. Bomber and Charge had heard the firing and came running as well. Seeing himself held at gunpoint by four really angry looking sailors the fisherman gave up his resistance.  
Charge disarmed him and brought him to the other ones at the stern. Kate leant over the rail and saw Swain and 2Dads floating, both motionless and quickly ordered the RHIB to help.

"X? What happened? We heard gunfire but we can't see anything from up here." The CO asked impatiently. How he hated to stay behind and let his crew face all the danger.  
"Kate?" he urged when there was no reply.  
"She's busy, Sir. She's helping getting 2Dads and Swain out of the water. There was an ambush, 2Dads was shot and they both fell overboard, Sir." Charge finally replied.  
"How are they?" Mike waited anxiously for an answer.  
"Bomber is having a look right now, Sir. 2Dads isn't moving but I can't see any blood either, Sir. Swain seems to be ok."  
Mike sighed. That shouldn't have happened.

* * *

Aboard the RHIB, Bomber first looked after Swain who signalled to be ok.  
"I'm just soaked to the skin, Bomber. I'm fine. What's with 2Dads? Have a look at him first. He didn't react when I called him. He got a direct hit!"  
Clumsily he got to his feet and stumbled over to Bomber who was gently turning Leo around to see if she could detect any bullet wound. Her fellow sailor was pale and unconscious but as Charge had said there was no blood. She carefully opened the kevlar vest. Nothing. She sighed with relief. Swain helped her to turn him back into the recovery position, then sat down next to the unconscious young man and winced. Hitting the water after an uncontrolled fall had really hurt. Now that he knew his crew mate was going to be ok, he allowed Bomber to check at him as well.  
After what seemed like hours, Mike Flynn got the report he had waited for: "Sir, 2Dads is still unconscious but is going to be ok. Kevlar took the round. We bring him and Swain back now, could you sent the other RHIB for the fishermen?"

* * *

"How are they?" The captain stuck his head around the door of the wardroom. Swain stood there, still in his full gear, soaked to the skin, helping Bomber to get 2Dads out of his wet clothes. The young man got some colour back in his face but still hadn't come around.  
"He's got a punch in the solar plexus, knocked him out in a second. Kevlar prevented him from a more serious injury." Swain answered while listening to Bomber who dictated him the results from blood pressure measuring. He checked what he had written down so far. "Blood pressure's a little low, but that's not unusual in such a case. We just have to wait 'till he wakes up, there's nothing more we can do for now."  
Mike frowned. "And what's with you?"  
"I'm ok Boss. Just some bruises, nothing serious."  
Mike looked suspicious and decided to ask his second medic instead. He knew his coxswain all too well. If there was someone in trouble he wouldn't look after himself.  
"Bomber, what's your opinion?"  
Bomber covered her friend with a blanket to keep him warm and turned.  
"You should get out of your wet clothes, Swain. You're going to catch a cold. I told him before, Sir." she told her captain, "but he wouldn't listen then."  
"She's right Swain. You do look a little shaken yourself. It was a long day, go take a hot shower and have a rest. We debrief later." Mike ordered.  
Swain wanted to protest, he couldn't let 2Dads alone in his state. What if there were any complications? Bomber interrupted him before he could say anything.  
"Go Swain! I'll stay here with 2Dads and call you the minute he wakes up or anything changes. I promise. You don't help me like this." She grinned. "That's an order Swain. After all, I'm second medic and you're _my_ patient now."  
After Swain had reluctantly left the wardroom, half being pushed out by his second medic, Bomber pulled herself out of her vest.  
"I sent Spider to take care of your stuff and bring you a brew. And Bomber, good work." Mike left the wardroom closing the door behind him.  
"Thanks Boss." Bomber pulled herself a chair next to 2Dads bed and sat down.

* * *

She must have fallen asleep because when she looked up the next time her vest was gone, someone had wrapped a blanket around her and a cup of coffee stood on the cupboard next to her. She took the cup, had a sip and made a face. It was cold! Someone chuckled behind her. Turning round she found herself being scrutinised by deep blue eyes.  
"2Dads, you're awake! How do you feel? Is there any pain?" She blushed at his smile. "And how long are you starring at me?"  
"Not nearly long enough, Bomber. You do look really sweet when you're sleeping." 2Dads tried to sit up and groaned. Gently but firm Bomber pushed him back.  
"You stay where you are. I go get Swain. Maybe you did hit your head harder than we thought." She added with an annoyed look as a reply for his constant smiling and left. 2Dads followed her with his gaze. _Wasn't she lovely?_

* * *

Bomber knocked on the door and opened it cautiously when no one answered. It was dark inside the cabin.  
"Swain?" She asked. There was still no answer.  
Bomber tried to push her upcoming fear away. _What if Swain had been injured after all? He did hit the water pretty hard. _"Swain?" she asked again and slowly tiptoed in.  
She didn't want to disturb her crew mate's sleep, he had looked like he should rest but she had promised. Kneeling down in front of Swains bed she gently touched his shoulder.  
"Chris? Please wake up." she pleaded.  
The coxswain woke up with a start looking down at her with confusion. Bomber sat on the floor in front of his bunk. Surprised by Swains sudden reaction she had keeled over.  
"Bomber? What are you doing down there? Is everything alright?"  
"Yes, I'm fine. Actually I was getting worried about you. You did sleep so deep I couldn't wake you up at first." Seeing Swain stifle a yawn, she added: "I'm sorry I had to wake you. But I promised to do so if there was any change."  
In an instant Swain was fully awake and out of his bunk. "What's with 2Dads?" he asked concerned pulling a shirt over his head. Bomber tried not to look at him. Seeing her crew mate in nothing more than shorts was kind of awkward.  
"He's fine. Or at least he seems so. He just woke up some minutes ago. He wanted to stand up but I told him he should wait 'till you had a look."  
Swain finished dressing. "Well then, we better not let him wait."

* * *

"Hey mate, you gave us quite a scare. How do you feel?" Swain took a stethoscope and started his examination.  
2Dads tried to get up. "I just told Bomber I'm fine, honestly. Ready to return to duty."  
"Oh really?" Swain grinned. "You're the new medic now? I didn't had the time to congratulate you on the promotion."  
Palpating the blonde sailor's abdomen now he used a little more pressure than needed. 2Dads flinched. "That wasn't fair!"  
"You know, you'd better let me decide if you're up for duty or not. You may feel fine for now but I still want you to stay here over night and another day. There could be late sequela."  
"But I'm allowed to eat something, yes? Please, I'm starving."  
Swain laughed. "Bomber, please go and see if you can find something to eat for our patient. We don't want him to starve to death now that he finally came around, do we?"  
Bomber shook her head and left. Only 2Dads could get shot and think of flirting and eating the minute he woke up again.  
Satisfied with the results of the examination Swain sat down on the chair Bomber had sat before, took some notes and then laid the clipboard aside.  
"What was it on that boat, 2Dads? The fisherman was right in front of you, you must have seen him!?"  
"I would like to hear the answer to that question as well." a male voice sounded outside in the passage. The CO entered the room.  
"I just met Bomber on her way to the galley. She told me you're up and about. Glad to see you're fine." Mike Flynn crossed his arms and leant against the cupboard. Giving 2Dads a come-hither-look he ordered: "Go ahead, sailor. I'm curious how you interpret _straight by the book._"  
2Dads put on a frown. "Honestly, I don't remember much, Sir. I do remember the boarding, I do remember Swain yelling but I don't remember what it was that distracted me. There was something... I just got a glimpse of it... but before I could take a second look I was hit and fell overboard. It must be on the video though."  
"The X and I had a look at it, Buffer and Swain too. There's nothing. Nothing that would explain why you allowed that man to shoot you without any resistance!"  
2Dads looked at Swain who shrugged his shoulders.  
"Sorry mate. I can't help you with that one. I haven't seen anything."

* * *

_Happy New Year everyone! :-)_

_And thanks a lot for your comments!_


	6. Chapter 6

******Chapter 6

On his way to the bridge, Charge saw 2Dads sitting in the juniors mess staring at the laptop in front of him holding his head in his hands. Charge joined him at the bench.  
"I thought you are still lying in the wardroom. Did Swain allow you to walk around?"  
"No he didn't." the other sailor mumbled. "But I couldn't stay there, it was deadly boring. Charge, I saw something on that ship that made me unfocused for a moment, I know! But I can't remember what it was and that drives me crazy!"  
Charge patted him on the shoulder. "It will come back. But you know maybe I can help. I was on that ship as well, you remember that much, right?"  
2Dads made a face. "I'm not stupid, ok?"  
"Sure you're not." Charge reassured him. RO came in with a cup of coffee.  
"Mind if I join you?"  
"No, sit down." Charge invited him. "We are discussing the incident on the fishing vessel."  
"Oh, is there something to discuss? I thought it was pretty obvious. 2Dads didn't pay attention and got shot. He and Swain fell overboard. End of the story. Is there more to it?"  
2Dads sighed. "I saw something but I can't remember what it was. I'm having a look at the video right now to see if there's a clue."  
"No, you can save your time. I saw it three times. There's nothing. Although it is kind of impressive to see the shot and the fall out of your perspective."  
"Maybe you saw a ghost?" Spider came in with his breakfast. "Or you're own mermaid at last." he added. All chuckled.  
"Sure, don't mock the afflicted, right?! I know what I saw!"  
"So you remember? That's great, tell us!" Spider nudged him.  
"Ouch! Mate be careful! As I already emphasised I do not remember _what_ I saw but _that_ I saw _something_! That's why I'm sitting here trying to find out what it was. Now leave me alone - all of you! Your mocking isn't helpful at all!"  
With this he stood up, grabbed his laptop and sat down at the nearby table. The others looked at each other, grinned and continued with their breakfast. Charge stood up and wanted to leave for the bridge when 2Dads shrieked.

"I've got it! Look at this!"  
Everyone gathered around the laptop. Nobody said a word, finally RO asked with caution:  
"2Dads, you sure you're ok? Maybe Swain could have a look at you again."  
"Don't you see it?!" 2Dads saw the blank looks on his crew mate's faces and explained:  
"There's a wet suit hanging inside that cabin! You can see it through the open hatch."  
"We can see that." Spider got his voice back. "But that isn't unusual on a ship, is it? These fishermen have to have a look at their ship's hull from time to time, getting rid of sea shells and stuff like that. Or maybe they just like to go for a swim in their spare time?"  
"Of course, how stupid of me! You are right! But tell me which one of these big square-shouldered gorillas down in our brig do you think is wearing a small-sized sky-blue wet suit with a small yellow dolphin jumping at one shoulder?"  
Startled his crew mates looked at the screen again.  
"Don't you recognise it?" 2Dads asked impatiently.  
"Recognise what?" Bomber looked over his shoulder. She had watched the assembly from the galley and had come to see what was going on.  
"That wet suit!" 2Dads pointed at the frozen picture on the screen in front of him.  
"No?" Spider answered cautiously. "Should we?"  
"You of all should, yes Spider. Isn't it obvious?!"  
"Guys, I think I know what he's talking about." All eyes were on Bomber as she pointed at the wall next to the door. On the noticeboard hung the pictures RO had printed out. On one of them was a young red haired woman waving her hand, floating over a reef. She was wearing a blue wet suit, the yellow dolphin clearly visible on her right shoulder.

"I go and tell the Boss. We have to ask them how that wet suit came aboard their ship."  
2Dads jumped up.  
"Mate, I'm sorry but that is going to be a problem." Charge answered. "The Feds took them over this morning, the Marlin as well. Your evidence is gone."

* * *

"Sir, I've got Commander Marshall on the phone." RO announced.  
"Thanks RO. I take the call here on the bridge. Put it on speaker." Mike knew all of his crew wanted to hear the news NAVCOM hopefully had about 2Dads' claim. RO told the Commander to wait 'till he'd made some adjustments then nodded to the CO.  
"Commander Marshall? This is Mike Flynn speaking. I hope you do have some news for us?"  
"In fact I have, Mike. Good ones and bad ones. Feds searched the Marlin the minute she berthed. They did find the wet suit and the marine institute confirmed that it is in fact one of theirs. It could be the one of Miss River but we don't know that for sure. The men that where on the Marlin still are claiming that they don't know what we're talking about."  
"How do they explain shooting on our boarding party?" Mike wanted to know.  
"Well the captain of the Marlin insists on his earlier statement." You could hear that Commander Marshall hadn't believed a word of it.  
"The one he gave us? That they thought they were boarded by pirates? That's insane, Sir!"  
"You know, I know, the Feds know. But they do have a really smart lawyer at hand. Mike, it is possible that they have to let them go until the hearing. I call you if there's any more news on this."  
Mike Flynn stood up from the captain's chair and turned to look at his crew. Kate shook her head in disbelief. She stated what everyone had in mind.  
"That can't be. We're so close to find out what happened and then nothing?"  
"Sir, I do have an idea." RO came forward. "The Feds have at least some intel about the Marlins movements, right? I could try to retrace their route. Maybe we find something then."  
"That is worth considering, RO. Good thinking, go ahead."  
"Sir, I'd like to assist." Kate volunteered. Mike nodded his consent. If someone could retrace the course the Marlin had taken it was the two of them.

* * *

Slowly Sara came up and broke the surface. She let the BC do the work, enjoyed the warm sunshine on her face and tried to relax a bit. How had she gotten into this mess? The young woman didn't blame the crew of the Hammersley for not getting the hints she had made. They barely knew her. Although she had hoped they would do better than do nothing. But what really hurt her was that the director of the institute she had worked for over seven years now had believed her story without any doubt. He even had given her sightseeing tips like to visit the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park. Sara sighed.

Of course Walker hadn't let her go after she had made the calls. She had begged him, tried to convince him that she wouldn't say a word, she even proposed to actually go for an outback trip and never come back to Cairns. He had just laughed.  
"You know as much as I know that you wouldn't do that, right? I do have other plans for you. Tom said you're an experienced diver? That you swim like a mermaid? I believe 'a nature talent' were his words. And from what I just saw I tend to think he's right."  
That had cut her to the quick. She remembered the young sailor sitting in the tender, all wet and a little confused, calling her a mermaid. The blushing later every time he saw her, excusing himself a thousand times. She couldn't hide a little smile.  
"You're smiling. That means I'm right?" Walker had pushed her out of the inflatable back on deck. "You're lucky I am in need of an experienced diver. So you could give us a hand. Maybe we can talk about the release after that."  
"You know I would never go diving with one of you! Nor do anything else for you. What you're doing is not right, many people will get hurt or already have been so. And I can't even if I'd like to. I do have a concussion I'm pretty sure of it. And your _friend_ over there", she had emphasised the word making it sound like anything else but the true meaning, "did probably break my nose. So no, I won't go for a dive any time soon."  
Walker had grinned. "Well we're going to talk about that again later. Now you better get some sleep and nurse your nose, sunshine. There'll be work to do soon."

Sara could hear the noise of an engine now. A boat was coming closer. They were back to pick her up but it would sure take them an other ten minutes to reach her. She drifted back into her memories.

"I told you I can't go diving like that!" Sara exclaimed. Nothing she had said so far had made any impact. "I do have problems breathing right here up on the boat. What do you think is going to happen if I go down there? If you want to kill me, do it yourself. I sure won't give you the pleasure to take on the job for you."  
"Sunshine, I think you don't understand. That's not a question of whether you like it or not. You will go. And I won't kill _you_ if you don't go."  
Walker's last words had made her suspicious. What was he talking about? She hadn't had to ask for more information.  
"You know, Tom had had visitors. There was a navy ship looking for you. Don't cling to false hopes, they believed every word he said. But now we know your Robert, don't we?" "You can't do that!" Sara had been frightened. "He has nothing to do with this!"  
"Oh I won't harm him. I always was someone who goes for the bigger things."  
Sara paled.  
"I can see we do understand each other. If you don't go and do some work for me, I will test one of my little toys on that warship. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to it."  
"You're crazy. You must be. There are 24 innocent people aboard that ship." Sara had never felt so helpless in her entire life. If she continued to refuse working for Walker, he would sure do what he had threatened to do. If she would give in, there was the chance that she went straight into a serious diving accident.

Finally she had given in. Now she had been on ten dives so far and it always had been the same. The submarine unloaded his cargo in watertight containers, she went down there, secured the cargo, tied a rope on it and then Walker came back and took her on board with the cargo.  
"A single diver is hard to spot from a plane. If we'd stop and stay here someone could become suspicious. But like that we are just a tourist fishing vessel under Australian flag, cruising up and down next to this wonderful tropical paradise. Innocent and not worth a look for anybody."  
Later that night, Sara overheard a conversation between Walker and Jack. She had come up on deck to get some fresh air, hoping her developing headache would go away. She could hear Jack shouting and decided to have a look. Carefully she sneaked closer.  
"They boarded the Marlin yesterday. What if they find something?"  
"Jack, relax. You know there's nothing they could possibly find. Let the Boss take care of it."  
Jack was pacing up and down the deck.  
"Walker, the Feds asked questions. About a wet suit! I told them to get rid of it the minute they discovered it!" Jack was getting furious now. "How stupid could one be? There's that yellow dolphin on it, you can clearly see where it comes from!"  
Sara smiled. So at least that plan had worked. She remembered they both had been furious when they had discovered that she _accidentally_ had forgotten her wet suit on the Marlin when they had changed the ship for better cover.  
"Calm down, mate. There's just one more dive and then we're finished. There will be a break until the next shipments come. We won't like to make anyone suspicious, will we? And there's still my backup plan."  
Sara pricked up her ears. That was going to be interesting. Walker looked around but couldn't see her crouching behind a pile of ropes.  
"You know I have some friends at the Cairns' dockers? Our little warship won't be a problem when it comes to it." Sara couldn't see the sneer on Walker's face but she shuddered with his next words. "BANG!"  
Both men laughed aloud. "You managed to get some explosives aboard a warship? Mate, that's cool." Jack sounded impressed.  
"Yeah, told you I'm good. That's the reason I'm the captain and you're not. Now listen. If something happens you have to finish the job. There's a transmitter with the explosives. He's broadcasting on 775 kHz. You can detonate the bomb without actually being on that ship, you just have to be in the near distance. I'll show you how to do it."  
Steps came closer to the position Sara still was crouching. She tried to make herself as small as she could. The men walked by without noticing her. Before leaving her hiding place the young woman waited for another few minutes. She had to inform the Hammersley about the danger immediately. They would know how to find the transmitter and the explosives with it. But how could she do so?

* * *

I hope you liked it. Please comment :)


	7. Chapter 7

******Chapter 7

Sara hadn't been able to contact anyone, of course not. Walker let her walk around on the ship but never let her unattended. Once she had managed to escape her guard feigning to be fallen asleep on the deck in the afternoon sunshine. The man had left to see if he could find someone with a cigarette. She had made it to the wheelhouse, sneaked in and grabbed the radio. But Jack had seen her and stopped her before she could use it. Since then there had always been a guard at the wheelhouse.  
After what Sara had overheard, she had made some backup plan herself. Preparing her diving equipment always on her own - that was something she had insisted on and Walker had let her go with it - she had added some more weight than usual to her weight belt and in the pockets of her BC for the next dive. That would make it harder to maintain a neutral buoyancy but she could compensate that with little effort. She also made sure she had a completely refilled scuba tank and an extra torch. Nobody had noticed her adjustments, the men knew she always took great care for her diving equipment.

* * *

Floating in the water on the ship's port side, Sara now felt like she had done the right thing. Walker was smiling down at her from the deck.  
"Sunshine, it was a pleasure working with you."  
How she hated that nickname he used for her. She carefully used the dump valve on her BC to release all the gas left and stayed afloat only by using her fins now.  
"But as sad as it is, we have to go separate ways now. I'm sorry, I told you I would play nice but that's over now. Tom sends his kind regards, wishing you all the best. He's sorry too but you know how it works. Money makes the world go round."  
Two things happened simultaneously. Walker pointed a gun at her and shot two times. Sara stopped paddling and sunk like a stone. The extra weight pulled her down fast.

"Did you hit her?" Jack asked curiously and leant over the rail.  
"I don't know for sure but I think so. There seems to be blood in the water and all those bubbles. I might have hit her BC as well. Let's wait some time and see if she comes up again."

Sara would have shrieked if she hadn't been under water. It had worked! She had known that Walker would try to kill her the minute he wouldn't have any use for her any more. She looked at her gauge console. 15m and dropping. Hastily she tried to stop her way to the bottom. She knew it wasn't deep around here, 40m at the deepest point but she wouldn't have to go down that far to play it safe. Dropping some of the extra weight and inflating her BC she managed to stop herself at 25m. When looking up she could see the shadowy figure of the boat on top of her. She tried to breathe slowly to reduce the revealing bubbles to a minimum and waited. _How long are they going to stay to make sure I'm no risk any more?_ The woman looked at her gauge again. If she was calculating right, there was still air for more than 20 minutes if she didn't move around too much. That should be enough. Movement caught her gaze. The needle was dropping, now it showed less air than before. Sara shook her head and looked again. The needle had moved indeed, she was loosing air! Pushing her upcoming panic away she made a quick assessment of her situation. _I'm at 2__5__m … _ Sara frowned. It was showing 28m now. She made some quick moves with her fins, 25m again. Over her head she could hear the engine come alive. Finally they were leaving.

And then she noticed the small line of bubbles coming out of her BC right over her right pocket. They were followed by a small red cloud. That was bad. Sara all of a sudden realised the sharp stabbing pain in her arm. Walker hadn't missed her as she had thought. It was only the compression of the depths, her wet suit and the BC that had reduced the loss of blood to a minimum for now.

She had to surface, right now. There would be decompression problems, that she knew but if she lost conciousness under water she would drown. There was no time for safety stops. Coming up as slowly as she dared, Sara reached the surface with just little air left. She fiddled around with her weight belt and managed to get rid of it. Now that would buy her some time. She also tried to loosen the band that hold her scuba tank on the BC. But that task was far too difficult with just one hand. And she couldn't use her right arm, it hurt too much. The first bullet must have been slowed by the lead in her weight bag. But it seemed to have scratched the air blatter of her BC. The second bullet had hit her upper arm. The woman struggled with her equipment and prepared herself for a long night. It was getting darker with every minute, it must be around 2000 already. Her plan had been to swim towards the islands but with her injured arm and the barely functioning BC she had no chance to reach it, again. _I really should stop making plans like that! _she thought, angry with herself. Hopefully someone would see her torch and come to investigate.

* * *

"Sir, we do have a course."  
Mike Flynn stood up from the captain's chair and looked over Kate's shoulder at the sea map. RO pointed at a line he had marked on the map.  
"These three points are the data we got from coast watch and the Feds. We assumed that the Marlin took a straight course and that leads us here." RO's forefinger stopped at a small group of islands. "There's nothing out there but some tourist fishing vessels and a small fishing village on the largest of these islands. I wonder what they were looking for out there."  
The CO compared their actual patrol course with the one RO had just shown him. These islands laid way out of their course. But he needed to go there and see if they could find something!  
"Well, we hopefully find out soon. RO, wasn't there a suspected FFV reported next to these islands?" he asked casually.  
The radio officer looked perplexed for a moment, then his face lit up as he understood. "Yes Boss, I think I heard something over the radio."  
"Then we should have a closer look, shouldn't we?" Mike smiled. "X, plot a course. Spider, get us there full steam. It looks as if our maps are not quite up to date and I won't risk going aground at night. We get as close as we can and wait for the next morning." Mike looked at his watch, 1730. That left them around 30 minutes until sunset.  
"RO, who long 'till we reach the islands?"  
"I'd say about 50 minutes, Sir."  
That was not what Mike had hoped for but he couldn't help it right now.  
"X, you have the ship. I'll be in my cabin."  
"X has the ship." Kate confirmed.

* * *

Bomber hated the night watch. It was mostly boring and with the Hammersley just rolling until the sunrise there was not much to do. She yawned and had a look at her watch, 0400 hours.  
"Buffer, I go and make a brew. Do you want anything?" she asked.  
"Thanks, Bomber. That's a good idea. Maybe you find something to eat as well.", her crew mate replied, sitting at the helm and yawning himself. "This is going to be a boring night." He didn't knew how wrong he was.

* * *

When Bomber came back up the staircase to the bridge, she had two cups with her and a plate with muffins.  
"Look what I got, Buffer." She handed him one cup and the plate and took one pair of the binoculars. "I'm just having a look outside, I'm back in a minute. Don't you dare eating all of the muffins!" She smiled at him and climbed through the hatch.  
Outside she let her gaze sweep around. Nothing! Just as she had expected. The night was chilly and starlit, sea was a little rough. Maybe a storm was gathering. Bomber turned round and wanted to go inside when she saw a light. The young sailor stopped short and took a second look. The light was gone. She blinked, there it was again. Now she could clearly see the light, it looked like someone was waving.  
"Buffer!" she called. "I think there's someone in the water!"  
Buffer was with her in a second. "Where?"  
Bomber pointed in the direction where she had seen the light. "There was a light, like someone was waving a torch or so. It's gone now."  
The older seaman had a second look himself and then saw it too.  
"Well spotted, Bomber! Go wake the CO and Swain. Whoever this is might be in need of medical attention."  
They hurried inside, Bomber was already on her way to the CO's cabin when she heard Buffer raising the man overboard alarm.

* * *

Sara started when something gently nudged her left fin. She must have fallen asleep. There it was again, right fin this time, pulling softly. Alarmed, she tried to get rid of whatever was pulling at her fin. It held firmly. Starting to panic, Sara went down and swallowed some amount of seawater. That made her coughing and she swallowed even more. The cold water splashing over her head kicked in her reflexes. She calmed down a bit, pushed herself back at the surface and used her torch and her mask to see underwater what had nudged her. She cried with relief and laughed at the same time. A sea turtle was swimming around her, attracted by the light of her torch. For a second, Sara had been sure it was a shark testing if she was worth having a second bite. And then she saw it. In the distant were lights, not moving, but it looked as if there was a ship. This could be navigation lights! Sara waved her torch from sight to sight, giving the emergency signal and wished she had packed a strobbe or a whistle but there was nothing like that on Walker's ship, of course not. He hadn't wished his divers to be detected. But she was glad she had brought a second flashlight with her. The first one had given up some hours ago. _Did they see me?_ Sara was not sure until she heard someone's voice over the water.

"Away seaboat, away seaboat!"

"Hey!" Sara tried to attract attention but she was so exhausted all she managed was a soft mumble. They wouldn't be able to hear her over the roar of the engine. A blinding light shone in her direction. She could hear voices coming closer now, calling. And then her second torch flickered and gave up.

* * *

The X lead the boat party. They steered in the direction the light had come from until just a minute ago and soon could see someone floating in the water.  
"Sir, there is someone in the water." Kate reported back to the Hammersley.

At the bridge, Spider looked in his captain's face and saw the hopes and fears he had himself been reflected. "Boss, you think it's..." He didn't finish his sentence.  
Mike looked up, trying to pull himself together and keeping his composure. "We'll know soon enough, Spider." he answered casually. Everyone on the bridge could hear the agitation in his voice though.

"Slow down the engine, we don't want to run over whoever it is." Kate McGregor ordered the sailor at the helm. The RHIB slowly closed in to the position where they had seen the light coming from.  
Swain used his torch to have a closer look. "You're right, ma'am, it seems to be someone in a wet suit. He's moving. Hey there, are you ok? We're from the Australian Navy." he called. The RHIB went alongside the barely floating swimmer, Swain and Buffer leant overboard and pulled him inside the RHIB.  
"Swain?" Kate asked. She couldn't see who it was with the mask and the hood covering most of the face.  
"It's a young man, X. He's ok, but he's suffering from hypothermia. We need to get him back to Hammersley, I can't do anything out here."  
Kate felt disappointed. She had had the hope it would be Sara River whom they had found. The sailor at the helm didn't need an order, he already had turned around and was heading towards the warship.  
"Mate, can you hear me? What's your name?" A soft moaning was all Swain got as an answer. Then the swimmer opened his eyes.  
"I'm Jason." he mumbled. "My buddy and I made a bet whether I could make it to the coast up from here alone or not. He left some hours ago with our boat. He said he would be back and look after me if I don't show up till sunset but we must have missed each other. Waves are a bit higher than we thought." Seeing the looks they gave him, he added "It sounds really stupid now but it seemed to be a good idea this afternoon."  
Kate wondered how someone could be so stupid and let himself been left behind out on the ocean.  
"Well, you're safe now, We're on our way to the HMAS Hammersley right now. Try to stay awake for a little longer, will you? Our captain sure has some questions." she added when the man closed his eyes again.  
"Are you in pain?" Swain asked trying to keep him awake.  
"My muscles are aching like hell, I feel a little dizzy and I'm really cold." Jason tumbled, his teeth chattering now.  
"We'll get you warm in no time back at the Hammersley, you'll see." Noticing that he tried to sit up, Swain helped him in a sitting position.  
"Please don't tell my father, he's the owner of a fish farm and the towns mayor on the next island. He wouldn't understand." the young man pleaded and gratefully accepted the blanket now offered to him.  
Buffer snorted and turned round, facing his superior officer. "Now we're playing nanny for some stupid kid?! What's next? Swimming lessons for bored upper class teenagers? We should have left him out there waiting for his _buddy_." he used the word Jason had, giving it a slightly twisted sound.  
"You know we couldn't possibly do that. Although I find the thought of it quite appealing." Kate replied thinking of her warm and cosy bed which she had to leave behind when the man overboard alarm had been raised.

Nobody looked back. And even if they had, they hadn't had a chance noticing the small figure waving weakly in the dark, rolling up and down with the waves, drifting away with the current.

* * *

Enjoyed reading? Tell me whether you liked it - or not ;-)


	8. Chapter 8

_That one is for my beta reader:-) thanks Amethyst2417_

* * *

***Chapter 8

Early at the next morning, about the same time Mike Flynn had to account to Commander Marshall for leaving their patrol, an elderly couple had an argument on the other side of the biggest island of the archipelago. They were standing at their ship's stern, looking over the railing at something floating in the water.

"I told you that I saw a light last night! And see, there is a diver in the water. It's probably like this movie we saw, they just forgot the poor soul out here." the white-haired woman said. "We should have come to investigate earlier! But no, you must get your own way, as always!"  
"Oh please, stop yelling at me! I saw nothing last night and I'm the one who can actually see without glasses as thick as... I can't even describe it. Look at you, just like portholes!" her husband nagged.  
Handing him the lifeline, his wife ordered harshly: "Well get that poor girl out of the water now, will you? You must have learned that much back in your navy days?"  
Muttering away to himself, the old man climbed down the few steps at the stern until he stood on the platform at sea level.  
"Hey there, can you catch the line?" he yelled, throwing the lifeline as far as he could. He turned around, looking up at his wife who was clearing her throat. Having second thoughts, she asked:  
"You know, if it's a trick and there are pirates around here, coast watch warned us not to pick up unfamiliar people."  
"What a load of rubbish! They meant at the port, not at open sea!" He shook his head in disbelief. Linda could be so naive sometimes.  
Their argument was interrupted when someone asked in a hoarse slightly voice: "Could you...could you … give...a hand please?"  
The old man instantly turned round and held out his hand. "Of course young lady. At your service."  
He helped the young woman out of the water, pulling at her hand until she sat on the platform.  
"Thanks...a lot, Sir. Could you help me...open the BC? I'm...little clumsy...just one arm." Sara shivered with cold and exhaustion, her teeth clattering as she fumbled around with the buckles. The couple looked at her guest astonished. Why was she talking about having just one arm? The woman saw the blood first.  
"Oh my god, you poor child have been bitten by a shark!" she screamed.  
"If that had been a shark, there really would be just one arm left, stupid woman!" her husband mumbled and helped the diver up the stairs.  
On deck, the younger woman let herself drop on the floor and winced when she accidentally used her right arm to steady herself. That alarmed the old woman.  
"Hi, I'm Linda, let me see that arm, will you?" The elder woman kneeled before her. "Get that diving stuff of her, darling." she ordered her husband.  
Addressing the young woman, she added: "You know, I was a nurse when I was younger."  
"That's must be some time ago" the man teased her but helped nonetheless.  
Sara felt like being part of a strange movie. That couple was really nice and helpful but kind of weird as well. He was mumbling all the time, teasing his wife and doing what he wanted to while she was ordering him what she thought ought to be done next. They seemed to be ok with it though. Her head was spinning around and she had problems thinking straight. _What __the hell __had __just __happened?_  
"We need to get you out of that wet stuff, my dear. And then I will see if I can stop the bleeding. It looks as if it's a bullet wound? Don't look at me like that, it's not the first one I'm seeing, I used to work at a military hospital for some time. That's where I met him. Fell overboard and ended up in hospital." she nodded in the direction of the old man who was standing now at the wheelhouse's door.  
"I'm going to inform the boats around that we have a medical emergency. Maybe someone can help." he informed them.  
Sara grabbed the woman's arm. "He mustn't do that!" she urged. "The men who shot at me...they may be still in radio range. If they find out...they come back."  
Linda acted without any further question. "We bring her back to the port on our own, Jonas." she shouted over her shoulder. "No need to bother the other sailors. We wanted to sail back to Cairns anyway, right? She's holding out until then." More quiet, she added "You will, yes?"  
Sara nodded gratefully. Linda gave her a conspiratorial glance. "You know, we never had a real illegal on board. No problem, you don't have to explain anything. My father came to Australia as an illegal, you know? We just bring you back to Cairns and to a hospital and ask no questions."  
_T__hat must be some weird dream, maybe I'm already starting to __hallucinate_ Sara thought. She was glad when the old woman finally stopped talking and helped her to a couch under deck. Jonas brought her some water and dry clothes which she managed to put on with Linda's help. They where far to big. Linda chuckled.  
"My dear, you should eat more. Look at you, so skinny. I'm going to make you something to eat right now. Just rest a little bit."  
Sara leant back and closed her eyes. She could feel a throbbing pain in her upper arm, her joints were aching, she couldn't remember ever feeling so exhausted. There was something she wanted to ask Linda but before she could grab the thought everything went dark.  
"Poor girl. She's fallen asleep. They get younger every year, don't you think, darling?" Linda asked her husband, they both stood and watched her guest sleeping. Jonas just nodded and left for the wheelhouse. He didn't agree with his wife. But for that special topic that was something they never would. Back in the old times, when he had been a sailor, he never had told her when they had sent back illegals. She would have been upset. But he didn't bother now. He wasn't in the navy any more, they were on their way to Cairns anyway, so why get worked up?

* * *

Buffer pushed Jason out of the RHIB up on deck of the small yacht laying alongside, not even trying to be gentle. They had managed to contact Jason's friend who had already been worried. They both had promised not to do such a stupid thing again and the captain had agreed to hand over Jason to his friend without informing his father. Before, he had thrown the book at him.

"You know, you are old enough to make your own decisions but next time I'm going to inform your father, no matter if you're already of age, you understand?" Mike had finished. His intense look had made the young man shudder.  
"Yes Sir, I do, Sir. I promise I will never bring myself in such a situation again, Sir." Jason had stumbled, not being able to look at Mike's face.  
Spider had felt sorry for the young man when he had shown him the way to the RHIB after that. He knew that his CO could be pretty intimidating when he was angry.  
Now Jason and his friend where standing at the railing, not sure whether they should wave at the departing ship or not.

* * *

"I do hope we don't have to deal with them ever again." Buffer still was angry when they were back on the Hammersley. He slammed the door of the equipment's cupboard and turned around. "What do you think, young Spider?"  
Spider flinched and frantically looked for a way out of the situation. It felt like it wouldn't be a good idea to argue with Buffer right now. He spotted Bomber on her way to the galley.  
"Sorry Buff, I promised Bomber to help her with the cooking." With that he quickly left, glad that he escaped that time.  
"Bomber, I'm here to help - as promised." he added a little louder just to make sure. Rebecca looked surprised and wanted to ask what that was all about when she saw Buffer turning up behind Spider. She needed just one glimpse to see that the bosun was grumpy and hastily shoved Spider in the galley, closing the door behind her.  
"I do hope he isn't angry because of something you did. 'Cause then I won't block his way when he comes in here."  
Spider shook his head and made himself comfortable on the counter.  
"No, he's upset because he had to play nanny for the young man we fished out last night. CO told him to make sure he won't get lost 'till we make the transfer. That Jason must have been pretty annoying."  
Spider caught the potato peeler Bomber had thrown and regarded it with a blank look.  
"What do you want me to do with that? If Buffer comes in here, I sure can't prick him with that, can I?"  
Bomber rolled her eyes. "You could try. But I would highly recommend to use it for its true purpose."  
She opened a door next to the refrigerator, pulled out a potato sack and laughed at his look. "You offered your help, didn't you?"  
Spider sighed, he hated to be the kitchen helper. But on the other hand, if Bomber was the chef... .  
"You know, that's why I prefer chips. They come already peeled." he teased her. The brown haired woman tried to scowl at him but couldn't hide the smile playing on her lips. She and Spider had been through a lot together and developed a deep friendship although it hadn't looked like that at first.  
"_You know" _managing to imitate him perfectly, she mocked in return "I find you something else to do the minute I'm sure you can safely distinguish between cauliflower and broccoli." She tried to hit him with a dishcloth but Spider ducked out of the way, wrapped his arm around her waist and started tickling her 'till she would let the dishcloth go. Bomber chuckled and tried half-hearted to get free. To be honest, she wasn't sure if she wanted him to stop the embrace.  
"Having fun, you two?"  
Both sailors instantly froze. Kate McGregor was standing in the doorway, an empty cup in her hand. She raised an eyebrow and waited for an answer.  
Spider let go of his crew mate as if he had just touched a red-hot coal and straightened out his clothes, a blush of shame creeping up his face. He didn't say a word. Bomber finally answered: "Ma'am, seaman Webb offered to help me with the cooking." She paused, not sure what to say next or how to explain the situation they were caught in.  
The officer looked at the young sailors with the best I'm-really-angry-look she could manage but couldn't help thinking of her days as young seaman. Sure she never had acted like that but she could partly understand nonetheless. Spider's face colour had changed he was getting paler every minute now. Bomber tried hard to concentrate on the dishcloth she still had in hand. Kate suppressed a smile, then told them:  
"Well then I propose you go on with the cooking and stop whatever you just did. I'm sure the rest of the crew would appreciate a hot meal this evening, don't you agree?"  
She helped herself with a new brew and left the galley. Spider exhaled and gave a sigh of relief, he hadn't even noticed holding his breath. That had been awkward. He smiled sheepishly at Bomber and pointed at the potatoes.  
"Still ok if I help you with that or shall I leave?"  
"Don't you think you can get away so easily, seaman Webb." She smiled back. "I sure won't peel them all alone!"  
Spider took one of the potatoes and started to give it a scrape while watching Bomber preparing dessert. With the cap slightly slipped, her brown bob was hanging half over her face, yet he could see her focused expression as she counted some teaspoons of sugar for the blancmange, the smile again playing on her soft lips, her hazel eyes sparkling, her cheeks still a little blushed... . Sometimes he couldn't help but asking himself some of the famous what-if-questions.

* * *

Swain looked up when he heard someone coming up to the bridge. He was sitting at the helm, steering the Hammersley safely through the shoals and sandbanks around the islands to get them back on course.  
"Swain, have you seen the CO?" Robert asked, entering the bridge with a clipboard in hand.  
"I think he's in his cabin. He wanted to do some paperwork. Is there a problem, Robert?" Chris Blake asked, pointing at the clipboard.  
"No, at least not yet. These are the latest weather reports, things look stormy."  
Swain pointed at the still rough sea outside, the sky was all grey, covered now with big dark clouds, white crests made the water look like someone had gone wild with the icing on a big cake. "I guessed that much already. Waves are getting higher every hour. And night is already falling although it is nowhere near sunset."  
RO flicked through the pages he had in hand. "NAVCOM says it's not as bad as it looks. The storm is supposed to run a few miles east from here, not hitting any land this time."  
Swain nodded. "Nevertheless go tell the CO, he would want to know. And we should probably inform the crew that it could become a bumpy ride."  
More to himself, he added _cause __when __do__ storms __ever __do __what__ they __are __expected__ to do? __a_nd made a mental note to ask Bomber to make sure that there were enough cold packs in the fridge. If it was going to become as bumpy as he expected they would need them. There was always at least one who hit his head or slipped.


End file.
